Dave Ramsey talks about how you develop an emotional attachment of sorts to your first credit card, it's like your first teenage love! I never really got what he was talking about until I got a credit card in the mail awhile back for a credit card we have not charged on in YEARS. It was *that* card, the first card that took a chance on me and Matt and gave us credit. The first card that offered us a *gift*, which was a watch that I still have for some strange reason. But, I looked at that shiny new platinum card with the pretty gold letters on it, "cardholder since 1998". Wow! That card and I sure went back some years. More years than I've ever worked at a job, more years than I've had kids! So I almost held onto it, you know, just in case. But then I came to my senses and realized I don't NEED that card! I don't need Chase to give me any sort of assurance in my financial future. I called the number on the back and boldly asked to cancel the card, just close the account, we're DONE. Thankfully the break-up went pretty well, they didn't try and persuade me to keep the account or anything. It was a pretty touchy moment there so had they offered, I might have even fell for it.
Over the past few years I've held onto a bank acount that I wasn't really using for much. Granted I was getting a pretty good discount on my car insurance by being part of the group and when we used the account for all of our banking, it was great. But once we moved and started over in our new neck of the woods, the account pretty much just stayed open for my car insurance withdrawls. I've watched the account creep up from no service charge to $3/month charge, $5/month charge, and then last month it took the leap to $10/month! That was enough to push me over the edge. My car insurance savings needed to be at least $120/year to justify having this extra credit union account and I just wasn't seeing it. I called my insurance agent and explained the situation to her and we did some digging around and found a comparable group that I am already a part of that brought my discounted amount down a little, but even so, I am coming out ahead because I am not losing $120/year to keep open another bank account. The credit union apparently was fine with losing me as a 14year customer over $10/month, so good riddance to them. I am not paying anyone to hold my money for me!
So at this point, we are really moving towards our financial indepdence. We have our few household utility accounts and a single bank account, and not an open line of credit to be found. Our emergency fund is safely tucked away and growing and the Earth is still moving steadily around the sun. It is possible to live in a world without credit and we're doing quite well at it, something I never imagined I would be saying!
I've also taken the HUGE step to move my banking to almost strictly online. My goal is to write as few checks as possible. The bank (yes bank, not credit union) we are using at this time has a great FREE bill pay program where you can enter all of the places you need to pay bills at and they will either transmit the payment electronically on the due date, or print and mail a check by the due date. Not only do I not have to pay for paper checks, I don't have to pay for postage to mail them either. How can you go wrong with that? No more running the waterbill over to the payment station or even dropping a check in the offering at church. I just log in on payday and set up everything for the next 2 weeks and let it rip.
In the process of breaking up with our credit union and starting at the bank, there was a month where I didn't make my student loan payment, and then a month where they took the minimum payment due instead of the amount I was having them withdraw. Sadly, that makes my "ticker" look like we haven't made much progress, but we did fully fund our emergency fund this summer again plus beef it up a little, so it's not all that bad in retrospect.
August Status
Starting debt: $39,216.30
Amount paid: $26,093.98
$13,122.32 until we are debt free!!!
The student loan people sure make it hard to make extra payments! I have my account set to autopay out of my checking account every month and I couldn't just go to my online account and manage it. I had to send in a written request with my signature on it stating how much I want coming out every month. So starting next month, my auto pay is going to be nearly FOUR TIMES the amount of my minimum payment! At that rate, I should have my student loan completely paid off in about 2 years instead of the 13 they have me projected to pay off at!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Monday, July 5, 2010
Summer Fun
We've had one busy summer already and so much more to do! So far we've gone to the Memorial Day Parade, hosted a family game night, went to Scout Day in the Park, went to 2 cookouts at the Y camp, 2 family picnics, Michigan Adventure, went wild berry picking, watched the fireworks on Gun Lake, a week of Vacation Bible School, and gone to the park and swam quite a few times. We've crammed a whole lot into June and July has just begun! The park has been one of our favorite evening activities. I can take all 3 kids by myself and swim with them with no problem. The water is nice and shallow so Lauren and Nick can do pretty well, and I'm having a lot of fun teaching them how to swim. Even better, the park used to charge $5 to come in, but they did away with it this year, so it's FREE! Now that's a deal! A trip to the beach for $5!
We've got quite a bit planned for July. For Father's Day, Matt asked for a new tent so that we could go family camping, and we've been scouting out campgrounds that are reasonably priced and geared towards families. I know it's not "camping" if you are doing activities and stuff that are all programmed out, but when you're dealing with a 4yr old and a 2yr old, sometimes you have to take one for the team.
One nice thing about where we live is that there is no shortage of yard sales. I've picked up a few really nice things this summer that were on my list (well one of my lists!) and we've saved quite a bit of money by shopping used vs new. We were seriously considering buying new bunkbeds for the boys, and we had gone so far as to go in at Art Van and look around, and before the final decision decided to give Craigslist another once over, and came across a twin over full set for $40! Considering we were ready to spend $300, it was a great deal! They certainly weren't perfect, but unless we spend $260 on repainting them, we're still pretty far ahead on the deal.
We're having a birthday party for Nick, and a half birthday party for Nathan in a few weeks, and I've been couponing my way to rounding out the menu. I've got quite a few things stashed like pasta salad mixes, hot dogs, buns, condiments, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to feed everyone we've invited for under $50! We're having the party at the park (the one mentioned previously with the beach), so no cost there either. Should be a good time and I'm really looking forward to it.
We've got quite a bit planned for July. For Father's Day, Matt asked for a new tent so that we could go family camping, and we've been scouting out campgrounds that are reasonably priced and geared towards families. I know it's not "camping" if you are doing activities and stuff that are all programmed out, but when you're dealing with a 4yr old and a 2yr old, sometimes you have to take one for the team.
One nice thing about where we live is that there is no shortage of yard sales. I've picked up a few really nice things this summer that were on my list (well one of my lists!) and we've saved quite a bit of money by shopping used vs new. We were seriously considering buying new bunkbeds for the boys, and we had gone so far as to go in at Art Van and look around, and before the final decision decided to give Craigslist another once over, and came across a twin over full set for $40! Considering we were ready to spend $300, it was a great deal! They certainly weren't perfect, but unless we spend $260 on repainting them, we're still pretty far ahead on the deal.
We're having a birthday party for Nick, and a half birthday party for Nathan in a few weeks, and I've been couponing my way to rounding out the menu. I've got quite a few things stashed like pasta salad mixes, hot dogs, buns, condiments, and I'm pretty sure I'll be able to feed everyone we've invited for under $50! We're having the party at the park (the one mentioned previously with the beach), so no cost there either. Should be a good time and I'm really looking forward to it.
Wednesday, May 26, 2010
Summer Time!!
The weather has turned for the better, so it's time for us to start thinking about our summer plans. Obviously we aren't going on a huge expensive vacation, we plan on maybe a couple of smaller things closer to home, but still trying to keep things a bit exciting for the kiddos. Here's just a tiny list of what we hope to do this summer:
1. Memorial Day Parade
Nathan and Matt will be marching in the Wayland Memorial Day Parade with Scouts. It should be pretty fun! We always go and cheer them on from the sidewalk. If Lauren can hold it together, we might be able to picnic in the park afterwards? Or maybe we'll end up at Grandma's house at the lake for some swimming? Either way, it's going to be a fun day!
2. Family Game Night
We're hosting a family game night in June for some of our friends. We'll have a potluck, plenty of things for the kids to do and play lots of board games and stuff that we already have on hand.
3. Family Cookout at Camp
Matt works for the YMCA camp where Nathan goes all summer, and one night a week they do a parent show and a cookout. We go every single week! It's a night we don't have to cook dinner and the kids get to play outside as well. Nathan ends up spending the night that night and it's always a fun time for him.
4. Michigan Adventure
It's a smaller scale amusement park not terribly far from our house. They have a couple of days where we can go on the cheap (through SavingsAngel and Scouts), so we're going to have to pick a day and go for it. They have a huge waterpark there, so that's perfect for the kids, who absolutely adore being in the water.
5. Family Picnics!
Oh my word, can I even start to figure out how many of these we'll be going to? Family reunions, informal gatherings, birthday parties, etc. It seems like we have one at least every other weekend! It's so fun though to see the kids play with their extended family and have that time together. We have a mesh bag that we keep plastic plates, cups, and silverware in so that we can just toss it in the car and head out. I hit a great sale the other day at Meijer and loaded up on things like pasta salad so that we can just throw one together for the last minute stuff.
6. Vacation Bible School
I am volunteering at our vacation bible school this year since it's at night, and my intention is to take Lauren and Nick with me. I am going to be ushering around kindergarten kids, so my kids will blend right on in there. They'll have so much fun, I just know it. I love that our VBS is at night this year because I'll actually be able to get involved and see the program.
7. The Park
We have 2 very nice parks by our house. One is walking distance, less than 10 minutes away and it's pretty quiet there. The kids love to play there! It's a great way to end our day. Last night I braved it and took all 3 kids to the little park a bit farther away that is right on Gun Lake. They just played on the equipment there, but we are going to test it out and see how it goes if just one adult goes with them and we attempt swimming. The water is very shallow all the way out to the swimming line, so it should be a pretty reasonable thing to try and pull off. There is no charge for the park Monday-Thursday, and $5 if you go on the weekends. We wouldn't go on the weekend anyways since it's just crazy busy with out of towners.
8. Misc Other Things...
Though we don't have everything precisely nailed down yet, we know that there will be some camping coming up, an overnighter at the Whitecaps, and some scouting events. Just a little planning ahead on these things really do help keep the costs low and the day fun!
1. Memorial Day Parade
Nathan and Matt will be marching in the Wayland Memorial Day Parade with Scouts. It should be pretty fun! We always go and cheer them on from the sidewalk. If Lauren can hold it together, we might be able to picnic in the park afterwards? Or maybe we'll end up at Grandma's house at the lake for some swimming? Either way, it's going to be a fun day!
2. Family Game Night
We're hosting a family game night in June for some of our friends. We'll have a potluck, plenty of things for the kids to do and play lots of board games and stuff that we already have on hand.
3. Family Cookout at Camp
Matt works for the YMCA camp where Nathan goes all summer, and one night a week they do a parent show and a cookout. We go every single week! It's a night we don't have to cook dinner and the kids get to play outside as well. Nathan ends up spending the night that night and it's always a fun time for him.
4. Michigan Adventure
It's a smaller scale amusement park not terribly far from our house. They have a couple of days where we can go on the cheap (through SavingsAngel and Scouts), so we're going to have to pick a day and go for it. They have a huge waterpark there, so that's perfect for the kids, who absolutely adore being in the water.
5. Family Picnics!
Oh my word, can I even start to figure out how many of these we'll be going to? Family reunions, informal gatherings, birthday parties, etc. It seems like we have one at least every other weekend! It's so fun though to see the kids play with their extended family and have that time together. We have a mesh bag that we keep plastic plates, cups, and silverware in so that we can just toss it in the car and head out. I hit a great sale the other day at Meijer and loaded up on things like pasta salad so that we can just throw one together for the last minute stuff.
6. Vacation Bible School
I am volunteering at our vacation bible school this year since it's at night, and my intention is to take Lauren and Nick with me. I am going to be ushering around kindergarten kids, so my kids will blend right on in there. They'll have so much fun, I just know it. I love that our VBS is at night this year because I'll actually be able to get involved and see the program.
7. The Park
We have 2 very nice parks by our house. One is walking distance, less than 10 minutes away and it's pretty quiet there. The kids love to play there! It's a great way to end our day. Last night I braved it and took all 3 kids to the little park a bit farther away that is right on Gun Lake. They just played on the equipment there, but we are going to test it out and see how it goes if just one adult goes with them and we attempt swimming. The water is very shallow all the way out to the swimming line, so it should be a pretty reasonable thing to try and pull off. There is no charge for the park Monday-Thursday, and $5 if you go on the weekends. We wouldn't go on the weekend anyways since it's just crazy busy with out of towners.
8. Misc Other Things...
Though we don't have everything precisely nailed down yet, we know that there will be some camping coming up, an overnighter at the Whitecaps, and some scouting events. Just a little planning ahead on these things really do help keep the costs low and the day fun!
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
Urgent Care--Home Sweet Home!
The running joke is that I should get a frequent visitor punch card for urgent care since it seems like we are taking a kid there so often that they often recognize us by name when we walk in the door. Now part of that could be the "small town" of it all, or it could just mean that we visit the office more often than your typical family.
Today I packed up Nick and we headed out after him being absolutely miserable the past few days. Of course they couldn't find anything wrong with him, which means we paid our co-pay and were shoved out the door, but as a parent, you second guess yourself all the time. Do you want your name to be the one who ends up in the paper because the kid was sick for 3 days before going to the Dr only to find out that they had some rare bacterial infection that spreads like wildfire and infected all of west MI? Nope, I think not, so off to urgent care we went!
Medical expenses. Ugh. Just a part of life and you have to pay them. But there are ways to minimize the costs and try and manage them as best you can.
1. Do you have flex spending accounts at work? You can set aside pre-tax dollars and use that money towards co-pays, prescriptions and other things. I say "other things" because the new healthcare bill is going to impact flex accounts quite a bit. What's true today might not be true this next plan year, so I am sticking with it for now. We set aside a nice chunk of change and base it on what we used last year. Unfortunately this year we budgeted way too low and my account is already empty in May and the new plan year doesn't start until September 1.
2. What's your co-pay? We pay a $10 co-pay for regular Dr visits and urgent care visits, so we tend to go that route first. Our highest co-pay is for the emergency room, so we almost never go there. If we do end up there, it's because urgent care sent us there.
3. Ask for generic! Typically if you need a prescription, they'll ask, "Do you have insurance?" Yes, I do, but don't ASSUME that I have rock star prescription coverage! I always ask if there is a generic drug that we can use and if it doesn't work, then and only then will we go for a brand name drug.
4. Ask for samples. When I was starting on beta blockers for my migraines, I asked if the Dr had samples around before filling my prescriptions. He was tweaking the dose a bit the first few months, so I hated the idea of paying for something and tossing it because I needed a different dose.
5. Check for prescription drug programs. Here are just a few that I am aware of in west MI:
Meijer free antibiotics, prenatal vitamins and Metformin
Sam's Club $4 Generics (no membership required)
Target $4/30day, $10/90day Generic Program
Wal-Mart $4/30day, $10/90day Generic Program
Family Fare $4/30day, $10/90day
D&W $4/30day, $10/90day
K-Mart $5/$10/$15/$25 Program
6. Visit the manufacturer's website for the prescriptions you take most often. The medication I take for my breakthrough migraines works out to $4/pill when I get it filled, so that's $40 for 10 pills and that's just my cost! YIKES! So I went to the website of the drug and printed out coupons for $20 off my next refill. When Nicholas was taking Prevacid as a baby, we registered on their website for a card that gave us $20 off each prescription as well. Definitely worth the time!
7. Mail order options. Do you have this available through your prescription plan coverage? Ours used to be that we paid 1 copay and got 3 months of medication, but it was changed this last plan year that we pay 2 copays and get 3 months of medication. So it's a "free" month basically. If it's a medication that you take daily and fill constantly, the savings add up and the convenience of having it mailed right to your house can't be beat!
Today I packed up Nick and we headed out after him being absolutely miserable the past few days. Of course they couldn't find anything wrong with him, which means we paid our co-pay and were shoved out the door, but as a parent, you second guess yourself all the time. Do you want your name to be the one who ends up in the paper because the kid was sick for 3 days before going to the Dr only to find out that they had some rare bacterial infection that spreads like wildfire and infected all of west MI? Nope, I think not, so off to urgent care we went!
Medical expenses. Ugh. Just a part of life and you have to pay them. But there are ways to minimize the costs and try and manage them as best you can.
1. Do you have flex spending accounts at work? You can set aside pre-tax dollars and use that money towards co-pays, prescriptions and other things. I say "other things" because the new healthcare bill is going to impact flex accounts quite a bit. What's true today might not be true this next plan year, so I am sticking with it for now. We set aside a nice chunk of change and base it on what we used last year. Unfortunately this year we budgeted way too low and my account is already empty in May and the new plan year doesn't start until September 1.
2. What's your co-pay? We pay a $10 co-pay for regular Dr visits and urgent care visits, so we tend to go that route first. Our highest co-pay is for the emergency room, so we almost never go there. If we do end up there, it's because urgent care sent us there.
3. Ask for generic! Typically if you need a prescription, they'll ask, "Do you have insurance?" Yes, I do, but don't ASSUME that I have rock star prescription coverage! I always ask if there is a generic drug that we can use and if it doesn't work, then and only then will we go for a brand name drug.
4. Ask for samples. When I was starting on beta blockers for my migraines, I asked if the Dr had samples around before filling my prescriptions. He was tweaking the dose a bit the first few months, so I hated the idea of paying for something and tossing it because I needed a different dose.
5. Check for prescription drug programs. Here are just a few that I am aware of in west MI:
Meijer free antibiotics, prenatal vitamins and Metformin
Sam's Club $4 Generics (no membership required)
Target $4/30day, $10/90day Generic Program
Wal-Mart $4/30day, $10/90day Generic Program
Family Fare $4/30day, $10/90day
D&W $4/30day, $10/90day
K-Mart $5/$10/$15/$25 Program
6. Visit the manufacturer's website for the prescriptions you take most often. The medication I take for my breakthrough migraines works out to $4/pill when I get it filled, so that's $40 for 10 pills and that's just my cost! YIKES! So I went to the website of the drug and printed out coupons for $20 off my next refill. When Nicholas was taking Prevacid as a baby, we registered on their website for a card that gave us $20 off each prescription as well. Definitely worth the time!
7. Mail order options. Do you have this available through your prescription plan coverage? Ours used to be that we paid 1 copay and got 3 months of medication, but it was changed this last plan year that we pay 2 copays and get 3 months of medication. So it's a "free" month basically. If it's a medication that you take daily and fill constantly, the savings add up and the convenience of having it mailed right to your house can't be beat!
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Dinner Rolls
Here's an amazing recipe I've been using for dinner rolls. We've made them a couple of times and they come out sooooo good!
Cooks.com
Here ya go!
1 pkg. yeast
1 c. lukewarm water
1 egg
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. oil
3 c. flour, sifted
Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. Add egg, sugar, salt and oil. Add half the flour, and beat until smooth. Add rest of flour and beat again until smooth. Fill greased muffin pans half full and let rise until double. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
Definitely melt a little butter and brush on them before baking. Yum!
Cooks.com
Here ya go!
1 pkg. yeast
1 c. lukewarm water
1 egg
1/4 c. sugar
1 tsp. salt
1/4 c. oil
3 c. flour, sifted
Dissolve yeast in lukewarm water. Add egg, sugar, salt and oil. Add half the flour, and beat until smooth. Add rest of flour and beat again until smooth. Fill greased muffin pans half full and let rise until double. Bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.
Definitely melt a little butter and brush on them before baking. Yum!
Ticker Update (May)
What the crap! Have I not done this since February? How is that possible?
Starting debt: $39216.30
Amount paid: $26,005.30
$13,211.00 until we are DEBT FREE
We're on a snowball hold since we drained our emergency fund. But, we're intensely trying to get it stocked up again and going!
Starting debt: $39216.30
Amount paid: $26,005.30
$13,211.00 until we are DEBT FREE
We're on a snowball hold since we drained our emergency fund. But, we're intensely trying to get it stocked up again and going!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Back to Step 1
Is it really going back to step 1 if you never did step 1 to begin with? We were fortunate that we had a chunk of change in our savings account to begin with, but now that's all gone gone gone, and we are back to step 1--Building our baby emergency fund.
As I stood in the transmission shop yesterday and wrote the check, it made me think back to when we bought our house, and I was shocked to think back and remember the day we closed on our house and how we scraped together just enough to close that day, and thanks to the wonders of FHA mortgages, we brought less money to close on our house than we did to rebuild our transmission. Scary thought huh?
We managed to drain our baby emergency fund and also budget around an extra paycheck for both of us this month and cover the cost of ALL of our car repairs without having to borrow money or (gasp) use a credit card. Talk about a bad month, we had 2 oil changes, a blown brake line, and a transmission rebuild...all in about 3 weeks.
It did motivate me to get a few things that have been just taking up space in our basement out on CraigsList and sold. We don't really need the money for regular expenses or anything, but it will definitely help bring the emergency fund back up to completion.
Overall, I can't really complain. We were faithful and continued to tithe, our bills are all going to get paid, and we are no worse for the wear. Thank you Jesus!
As I stood in the transmission shop yesterday and wrote the check, it made me think back to when we bought our house, and I was shocked to think back and remember the day we closed on our house and how we scraped together just enough to close that day, and thanks to the wonders of FHA mortgages, we brought less money to close on our house than we did to rebuild our transmission. Scary thought huh?
We managed to drain our baby emergency fund and also budget around an extra paycheck for both of us this month and cover the cost of ALL of our car repairs without having to borrow money or (gasp) use a credit card. Talk about a bad month, we had 2 oil changes, a blown brake line, and a transmission rebuild...all in about 3 weeks.
It did motivate me to get a few things that have been just taking up space in our basement out on CraigsList and sold. We don't really need the money for regular expenses or anything, but it will definitely help bring the emergency fund back up to completion.
Overall, I can't really complain. We were faithful and continued to tithe, our bills are all going to get paid, and we are no worse for the wear. Thank you Jesus!
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